The present invention relates generally to adhesive labels and relates more particularly to dissolvable adhesive labels.
Reusable containers often have an adhesive label attached thereto to convey certain information about the contents of the container. For example, in the restaurant industry, food is commonly stored in reusable food containers that have an attached adhesive label indicating the type of food contained in the container, the expiration date of the food, etc. Once the contents of the container have been removed, such containers may be cleaned and reused. It is highly desirable that, after each use, the adhesive label be completely removed from the container. This is, in part, because adhesive residue left on the container after washing may lead to bacterial growth on the container. Such bacteria growth may lead to spoilage or contamination of the contents of the container.
One approach to this problem has been to devise an adhesive label that dissolves when contacted with water. Such a water-dissolvable adhesive label is commercially available from Avery Dennison Corporation (Pasadena, Calif.) as DISSOLVX® label. The aforementioned DISSOLVX® label includes a water-dissolvable paper, onto one surface of which a water-dissolvable adhesive is applied, the exposed surface of the water-dissolvable adhesive being covered with a release liner. In use, the desired information is typically handwritten onto the exposed surface of the water-dissolvable paper, the release liner is then peeled away from the adhesive, and the exposed adhesive is then applied to the container or other object. (Instead of handwriting the information on the paper layer of the label, a hand-held ink labeler may be used to print the information onto the paper layer of the label.)